A series of history-themed fringe events are now available to book as part of Chester Unlocked, a groundbreaking eight-month project celebrating Chester’s rich and hidden history.

The fringe event programme is available to view at Chester Unlocked and – so far – features heritage pub tours, “Darkeology” candlelit tours of the city’s most prized historic buildings, ancient-world wine tasting, one-off history lectures, Roman banquets, and much, much more.

CH1ChesterBID, has worked alongside archaelogy experts Big Heritage on the Chester Unlocked fringe programme. “Over time we’ll be adding more and more events to the Chester Unlocked fringe programme”, said Emily Ghazarian, CH1ChesterBID’s Events Manager. “We’re working with Big Heritage and CH1ChesterBID members to provide a really diverse mix of events and activities and we hope people take the chance to join us and enjoy all that’s special about our wonderful city centre.”

However, not all of the fringe events are being announced yet…“We’ve still got plenty of extra events hidden up our sleeves and we expect some will deliver a real wow factor for the city!” added Dean Paton, Managing Director of Big Heritage. “We’ll keep announcing new additions to the fringe events programme as and when we can. The interest we’ve already had in the events just by speaking to people has been fantastic so we’d encourage people interested in the events we’ve announced so far to sign up, and quickly!”

Places on all the events are strictly limited and places will go on a first come, first served basis. Many events will be free, but costs may apply to some, so people signing up are advised to check the website for details.

The fringe event programme is the second phase of Chester Unlocked. The first phase was “Hoot’s Route”, a unique city-wide museum map trail allowing local people and visitors to discover Roman, medieval and Victorian artefacts set out on display in retailers across the city centre.

Next week, the Chester Unlocked team will be announcing the next phase of the project, which will allow city centre visitors to live out their dreams of becoming real-life Indiana Jones’s or Lara Crofts! Watch this space…